


the art of scraping through

by motheyes



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, it's like mentioned, its Soft and im Gay, slam slam slam i just love this fucking trope so much guys, tagged as both because, the inherent homoeroticism of cleaning ur bro's wounds, they r technically getting together but they never talk about it, they skip the getting together phase and get right into established relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27375109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/motheyes/pseuds/motheyes
Summary: Ravio moves into Link's house one day, and he never moves out.That's okay with Link, though.
Relationships: Link/Ravio (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 126





	the art of scraping through

**Author's Note:**

> hey!!
> 
> a note just to clear up confusion - this is the link from alttp, albw, and the oracle games.
> 
> title is from "someone new" by hozier. i listen to.... a lot of hozier.
> 
> thank you for clicking on this fic, and i hope you enjoy it!!

Link wakes up one morning and there's a purple figure standing at the foot of his bed. He jumps, and before he can take this in, there's a hand being thrust in his face.

"Hi!" the person chirps as Link scrambles back, his shoulders hitting his bed's headboard. "I think you and I can do great business together."

Link stares at the hand. He stares at the giant bunny hood the person is wearing. He stares back at the hand.

"It's too early for this shit," he mutters, nearly falling onto the ground as he quite literally rolls out of bed.

"Hey, wait, where are you going?" the person cries. "You haven't even heard my business proposal yet!"

Link grunts. "Coffee. then... whatever the fuck you want." He waves his hand in the general direction of the bunny hood.

"Oh. Okay!"

The person follows him to the kitchen like a lost puppy, waiting patiently in the door as Link boils his water.

With a cup of hot coffee and a marginally clearer head, Link finally looks this strange person up and down, from the bottom of his ridiculous purple robes to the tips of his giant bunny ears.

"Now, what is it you wanted?" he asks, one hand braced against the counter.

"Ah!" There's a flash of a sharp grin from underneath the hood, and then the person mounts into a whole fast-paced spiel that Link barely follows. He catches something about merchandise, brand names, and housing(?) before he realizes that it's falls silent. The hood and, presumably, the person under it are now staring at Link with wide, excited eyes, evidently waiting for an answer.

"...Uh, yes," Link says. He has not understood a word of the conversation thus far.

The person beams and claps his hand together. "Great! Sheerow and I will just be moving in, then. We won't take up too much space, promise. I'm Ravio, by the way!"

He pulls a suitcase out of his cloak - where the fuck did he have the space to store that - and props it up against Link's one armchair in his tiny living room. 

And so, that's how Ravio moves in before Link even knows his name.

It turns out that bit about "not taking up too much space" was a total lie. That doesn't matter, though, not when Link is suddenly thrown headfirst into yet another _fucking_ adventure. Are there really no other heroes? Is it just Link?

 _Anyway_ , the point is, Link doesn't spend much time at home. So, Ravio taking over the entire living room and converting it into a new impromptu shop doesn't bother him all that much.

He still manages to drop by his little cottage, every once in a while. Usually, it’s to nurse his injuries - or, on occasion, to buy some ridiculously overpriced item off Ravio.

“You keep getting hurt,” Ravio remarks, the fourth or fifth time Link stumbles through the cottage door, barely alive. He looks back at Link from where he’s standing over the stove, boiling bandage water.

“Hazard of the job,” Link quips, gritting his teeth through the pain of the stab wound in his side.

Ravio’s brow furrows.

“We’re friends, right?” he asks. Link quirks up an eyebrow. He considers the way Ravio's just taken over his house. He considers Sheerow, who is loud, to say it mildly. He considers Ravio's overpriced goods.

“I mean, I guess," is what he says in the end, and he finds that it's true. "Yeah. We are."

“Then you gotta take care of yourself, Mr. Hero,” Ravio says. “For my sake.”

He lifts the pot off the stove carefully, smothering the fire with finality.

And, well, Link can’t argue with that, can he?

* * *

It takes months before Link can return home, before the day is saved single-handedly once more. He staggers back into domestic life with nothing to show for it but a couple hundred rupees, a cursed artifact or two, and another heaping of trauma. Time to reacclimate to civilian life, again!

Link finds that, even now that he's home, Ravio's presence still doesn't really bother him. He finds an absolute mess in the kitchen, but after he tells Ravio off, it doesn't happen again. It turns out it's very easy to draw boundaries with Ravio, despite what their initial meeting would have led Link to believe.

And so, Ravio just... doesn't move out. And, as long as the kitchen stays clean, Link doesn't mind. 

A couple weeks after coming home, Link wakes with a yell in the middle of the night. He bolts upright, suddenly too hot in his bed, and frantically kicks his blanket off his legs, afterimages of paintings and purple skies flashing in his retinas.

"Fuck," he says, pressing the palms of his hands into his eyeballs. "Fuck." He was doing so well.

"Are you okay?" Ravio asks from his makeshift bed on the other side of the room. His voice is thick with sleep.

"Fine," Link snaps. He takes a breath, and forces his voice to go softer. "You can go back to sleep."

Everything's quiet for a second, except for Link's slowly steadying breathing. Then, across the room, Link can hear Ravio getting up.

He squints as a bright lantern turns on in the kitchen, followed by the light of a flame over the stove.

"What are you doing?"

Ravio's silhouette shrugs. Without the stupid hood on, he looks a lot smaller. "Making tea."

"You better clean up after yourself," Link threatens, but his voice lacks any kind of harshness. Ravio waves dismissively.

Link watches Ravio putter around the kitchen for a minute, before he retrieves his blanket from the foot of his bed and lays down again. Maybe he won't get any more sleep, but he's too tired to get up.

The water boils quietly, and then it gets taken off the stove, and then the lantern's light gets brighter and Link can see his own shadow cast against the wall he's facing.

He rolls over, and he's met with the sight of Ravio hovering over him.

"Sit up," Ravio says. Link does.

Ravio presses a warm mug into his hands, before sitting down on the bed next to him. Link peers into his mug (it's his favorite, the one with little pink flowers painted on it), to see green tea leaves swirling around in the steaming water.

"This always helps me whenever i get a nightmare," Ravio tells him. He takes a sip of his own tea, and then recoils as it clearly burns his tongue. Link snorts.

"Wait for it to cool down, idiot," he says. Ravio pulls an exaggerated face, gently shoving at Link's shoulder. Link laughs at him, and Ravio's frown gives way to a soft grin.

Link gingerly sips at his tea, after it's been given a minute to properly cool. It's... really good, actually, peppermint with just the tiniest bit of honey.

"...Thank you," he says. 

Ravio beams. "Of course!"

They sit together in comfortable silence like that, the lantern between their feet and their knees almost touching, until the tea is gone and the mugs have begun to cool. Nothing needs to be said.

Ravio gently takes Link's mug from him and walks back into the kitchen to put them in the sink, before settling back into his makeshift sleeping bag.

He blows the lantern out.

Link lays down as well, and when he drifts off, warm and comfortable, his sleep is dreamless.

* * *

For a bit, things are good.

Link cooks a lot. He learned a bit, after his last adventure, but he's never had much spare time. It turns out that, with someone to feed, he enjoys it a lot more. Ravio eats his cooking without complaint, even when it's under-spiced or oversalted or cooked for too long. 

It’s on a whim that Link offers to cook a Lolian dish, one night. Ravio can’t cook himself, and Link knows the pain of being away from home for such a long time.

Ravio beams when he offers, and Link resolves to do it more often.

Nailing down the recipes turns out to be quite a bit of trial and error. Ravio describes a dish, Link guesses at the ingredients, Ravio gives criticism, rinse and repeat. 

It's fun, and Link thinks he learns a lot about cooking in the process. Neither of those things really matter, though. Just seeing Ravio's wide, nostalgic smile the first time that Link gets a dish perfectly right is enough.

Life is good. For the first time Link can remember, life is good.

Of course, though, the quiet domesticity of civilian life can never last too long, as Link is starting to learn.

One day, he's out at the marketplace, buying this week's groceries, when something about Hyrule Castle just _pulls_ him towards it in a way he can't resist.

He finds himself in the middle of an unfamiliar wood, produce and grocery bags scattered around his feet, and his first thought is, "I hope Ravio doesn't worry."

He ends up thinking about Ravio a lot, when he’s stranded on these two islands, tasked with saving hundreds of people yet again. He roasts some kind of native squash over his campfire, and the smell of the smoke reminds him of the pumpkin soup he worked on for weeks. He stares up at the stars at night and thinks of the dark sky of Lorule.

* * *

It's several long, long months before Link stumbles back through the wooden door of his home, leaning heavily on Zelda's shoulder.

"Who's there?" Ravio calls from the kitchen, his voice wary, and Link just about melts from the familiarity of it.

Zelda's helping Link down into a chair when Ravio leans his head around the kitchen doorway, and Link watches as his expression goes from wary suspicion to shock to joy. Link smiles, through the scrapes and soot and dirt covering his face.

"Mr. Hero!" Ravio nearly squeals, all but hurling the plate he was drying onto the counter as he throws himself in Link's direction. He stops short as he takes in Zelda. "Mrs. Princess?"

"Ravio, Zelda. Zelda, Ravio," Link says tiredly. He feels like he could just fall asleep in the chair where he sits.

Ravio blinks, once, twice, and then he nods. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Princess." Zelda nods back.

With that out of the way, Ravio resumes his hovering over Link. His hands flutter just above Link's face, as though he's scared to touch it. 

"Where have you been?" he asks. "I've been worried sick. Are you alright?"

"It's a long story," Link says, looking at Zelda. She takes the hint, thankfully, and starts explaining for him.

As she does, Ravio's hand finds Link's. His palm is soft and warm, his fingers devoid of any callouses. It's a sharp contrast to Link's, which is rough and weathered and scarred from four adventures, now. He almost feels like he should apologize for the ash he's smearing onto Ravio's untouched hand.

Ravio lets go, and Link tunes back into what's going on.

Zelda's sitting opposite him now, and she looks at him meaningfully as Ravio leaves the room for a brief moment. He rolls his eyes at her.

He looks up at Ravio as he comes back, the impromptu medkit clutched in one hand. Link made sure to put it together almost a year ago, now, after it became clear that his first adventure would not be his last.

"Do you need anything?" Ravio asks as he opens the medkit, looking at Zelda. She shakes her head.

"Alright. Please feel free to make yourself at home." 

That being said, Ravio takes a cloth and, after a moment of hesitation, he starts wiping the grime off of Link's face. 

Link leans into his touch, and his eyes start to fall shut. Hylia, he's so tired. On Holodrum and Labrynna, he had been moving constantly. This is a nice contrast.

He thinks he might have actually dozed off, because when Ravio shakes his shoulder, his hands are wrapped in bandages that he doesn't remember.

"Let's get you to bed," Ravio whispers. Link stands with him, leaning heavily on his shoulder.

"Thank you," he mutters.

"Of course."

They pass Zelda, who's snoring lightly on top of Ravio's sleeping roll. Link's sleep-deprived mind thinks it's kinda funny that, even after living here for over a year, Ravio hasn't upgraded to a proper bed.

Speaking of, Ravio lowers Link into his own bed. Link nearly passes out right then and there. He can vaguely register Ravio straightening up and making to leave, though.

He pats the bed next to him. "D'n't go."

"...You sure?" Ravio's voice sounds bemused and hesitant. Link can't see his face; his eyes are shut, now.

"Mhm."

"If you say so."

Link can feel Ravio's weight settling into the mattress. He curls into Ravio's back, and just like that, he's out like a light.

When he wakes up again, it’s dark out. Link doesn’t know how long it’s been, but Ravio’s still there, leaning into Link's side with the weight of his entire body.

Link smiles, and he lets himself fall back into a warm, drowsy sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> hey! thank you so much for reading. 
> 
> i'm sorry if you followed me for minecraft stuff i PROMISE i'll be getting back to that soon. ravioli just gave me many many thoughts. returning to my Fanfiction Roots with loz stuff.
> 
> please leave a kudos or comment if you enjoyed this fic!! it really does help me a lot to see feedback. :)
> 
> if you're reading this, i hope you have a fucking amazing day. <3


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